By Shefali luthraSenior Staff Writer

About two-thirds of the faculty are male and about four-fifths identify as white, according to statistics pub-lished on the Dean of the Faculty’s website. The faculty continues to lack racial and gender diversity despite concerted institutional efforts in recent years to increase it.

Though males and whites domi-nate the faculty, the current make-up represents a significant increase in faculty diversity, according to Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. Both he and Director for Institutional Diversity Valerie Wilson cited the Plan for Academic Enrichment as an engine for increased diversity in

recent years.The number of female faculty

members has increased by 30 per-cent since the 2002-03 academic year, while the presence of various minority groups has also increased.

“The University is putting a great deal of emphasis on diversity in terms of faculty,” Wilson said. “But you have to understand that recruiting a diverse faculty is not like recruiting a diverse group of students in the freshman class.”

Vohra said the current faculty reflects a lack of diversity in the pool of applicants. In the physical sciences, for example, he said it is “quite well-known” that there aren’t many senior women faculty mem-bers across the “university system as a whole.”

Thursday, February 10, 2011Daily Heraldthe Brown

Since 1891vol. cxlvi, no. 12

31 / 24

t o m o r r o w

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t o d aynews...................2-4wORLD................8-9eDitORiaL.............10OpiniOns.............11CitY & state.......12insid

e

City & StAtE, 5

Making a MarkStudents get involved in the political process

gets laid, judges by the cover

PoSt-, inSiDE wea

therPost-

By ChiP leBOVitZStaff Writer

Same-sex marriage supporters packed the State House yesterday at a Marriage Equality Rhode Is-land rally.

Buoyed by the election of Gov-ernor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, who has publicly voiced his sup-port for marriage equality, the group is pushing for the passage of a bill introduced this January that would legalize marriage for all couples regardless of gender.

A rally against legalizing same-sex marriage, hosted by the Na-

tional Organization for Marriage, directly preceded the marriage equality rally. Maggie Gallagher, chair of the National Organiza-tion for Marriage, Senator Har-old Metts, D-Providence, and Rep. Raymond Hull, D-Providence, were scheduled to speak at the rally.

About 300 supporters waving signs turned out to show their sup-port for the marriage equality bill. The total attendance exceeded the State House’s capacity, causing an L-shaped line to spill out of the State House and onto Smith Street.

Expectations for the newly sworn-in governor were high. Supporters of the bill draped a banner inside the State House

bearing a recent quotation from Chafee: “When equal marriage is the law in Rhode Island, we honor our forefathers who risked their lives and fortune in the pursuit of human equality.”

Chafee did not attend the rally.The rally featured speakers

such as Senator Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Providence, and Rev. Eugene Dyszlewski, chair of the Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality. The speakers sounded a consistent theme of support for equal mar-riage rights, reiterating their faith in Chafee’s resolve and a need to press forward.

“Don’t give up. Don’t give up.

Groups rally for, against gay marriage

By alex BellneWS editor

With few major capital projects left on its plate, the Corporation will meet this weekend to discuss vari-ous University policies and vote on next year’s budget.

The University’s highest govern-ing body will review President Ruth Simmons’ budget recommendations — including tuition and student fees — based on the report of the Univer-sity Resources Committee, which will be made public this weekend, said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, senior vice president for Corporation affairs and governance.

A group of Corporation members visited Yale Wednesday to talk about university governance with their counterparts, Carey said. They took a similar trip last year to Princeton.

Members will attend a series of committee meetings today, break-ing for the dedication of the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts this evening.

On Friday, the Corporation will meet as a whole during the day be-fore breaking into committees in the afternoon and reconvening Saturday morning to vote in University Hall.

A memorial service for Joseph Fernandez ’85, president of the

Stephanie London / Herald Pro- and anti-gay marriage advocates overflowed from the State House yesterday as debate began on a marriage bill.

continued on page 4

continued on page 6continued on page 2

Faculty remains mostly male, white

Ashley Aydin / HeraldReverend Janet Cooper Nelson has been the chaplain for 21 years.

See page 2.

R e v e R e d R e v e R e n d

news analysis

city & state

‘Jockapella’ receives UCS approval

N e w S i N b R i e f

The Undergraduate Council of Students elected an ivy Council liaison and approved the formation of four new student groups, including “Jockapella,” last night.

UCS invited its members to consider serving as the body’s representative to the ivy Council. Leah bromberg ’11, who currently serves on the Academic and Administrative Affairs committee, ran for the position pointing to her experiences with both UCS and ivy Council. in addition to having attended ivy Council conferences and summits, she was a member of the group’s policy committee last year.

bromberg edged out Michelle frea ’14, who promised to strengthen the relationship between UCS and the ivy Council if elected, saying the latter does not have a large enough presence on campus.

The ivy Council’s ivy Policy Conference will be held feb. 25-27 at Dartmouth.

A number of new student organizations were confirmed at the meeting as well.

“Jockapella,” an a cappella group formed by athletes from the track and field and football teams, was approved as a category one group. Though the founding members have formed a camaraderie with athletes across a number of sports through singing, they have been unable to join existing a cappella groups due to unfavorable audition and practice schedules, said Ralanda Nelson ’12, chair of the student activities committee. “Jockapella” aims to allow athletes to further explore their interests in singing.

Chapters of Operation Smile, an international organization committed to treating cleft palates, and Generation Citizen, a non-governmental organization founded by Scott warren ’09 and Anna Ninan ’09 that educates high school students about social change, were both approved.

The brown Naturalist Society, a group aiming to promote appreciation of nature, was also approved by the council.

— David Chung

Corporation to approve 2012 budget this weekend

Ben Schreckinger, PresidentSydney Ember, Vice President

Matthew Burrows, TreasurerIsha Gulati, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Fri-day during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Campus news2 the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

legends of the Hidden temple by natan last ‘12ACROSS1 Cops, slangily5 Peaces out11 As yet

unscheduled: Abbr.14 Troy’s best friend,

on “Community”15 86th Street home

of Caravaggio’s “The Musicians”

16 Live ___, 1985 fundraising concert for Ethiopian famine relief

17 Be a role model, as to younger siblings

20 ___ Lanka21 Ambulance driver,

for short22 Former Oasis

guitarist Gallagher23 Headlines?28 ___ Mawr, Pa.30 Bills at a strip club31 Actress Green of

“Casino Royale”32 Eye of the tigre?33 “That’s just

embarrassing...,” online

36 “Actress” who, to assuage her fear of fl ying before getting on planes, pumps some Britney Spears full volume

39 Reality TV show in which Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie tried to do manual, low-paying jobs, for the amusement of all

42 Iron Wok alternative

43 Element between indium and antimony in the periodic table

44 “___” McCallister (“Home Alone” protagonist)

45 Departure’s opp.46 1996 novel “Infi nite

___”50 Made to get on a

knee and drink a Smirnoff

52 One who works well with others to get the job done

56 Joanna Newsom’s instrument

58 Campus across the river on Washington Street

59 WALL-E’s love60 The desire to

never grow up, to a psychologist

65 O ___

66 Cuthbert of “The Girl Next Door”

67 Population: ___ (Strong Badia sign)

68 Hirsute “Addams Family” cousin

69 “Shaun of the Dead” or “Dead & Breakfast,” for short

70 Bad day for CaesarDOWN

1 Offer, as a lit joint2 Fairy king in “A

Midsummer Night’s Dream”

3 Small and trim, in dress sizes

4 ___ Mae, Whoopi’s “Ghost” role

5 “Conquer, ___ ya, stop your silly nonsense...” (Jay-Z in “Monster”)

6 Prefi x with shop or bomb

7 ___ Zeppelin8 The Beatles’ “___

Mine”9 Cartoonist Avery10 Song performed by

Eminem and Elton John at the 2001 Grammys

11 Die down12 Bobbie Sue’s

partner in crime in “Take The Money And Run”

13 Suffi x with hater or power

18 Web ___ (sparkling defensive play)

19 Riotous crowd24 City near

Düsseldorf25 Honduran

currency26 Knievel of

daredeviltry27 “How I Met Your

Mother” narrator29 Counterspell to

Lumos34 Additive

probably used by 42-Across

35 Part of a drum kit37 “Prince ___”

(“Aladdin” song)38 Opponent of

a Spartan, on “Deadliest Warrior”

39 Strong Bad refers to him as “the best lawyer soft tacos can buy” and “a cheese, or maybe an anvil”

40 Come to blows, in old slang

41 Duchess in “Black Beauty,” e.g.

42 Hit the slopes47 Lens cover?

48 Harsh49 Chomper in

“The Land Before Time,” and others

51 “Still ___” (Hit from 1999)

53 ___ Maas, Oedipa’s husband in “The Crying of Lot 49”

54 Kind of golf tourney

55 Calc. calculation57 Hip hop duo

Dead ___60 Letter in the

names of three Brown fraternities

61 Hamas rival62 Relative of a

do-now63 White house

defense grp.64 ESPN show

with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon

Solutions andarchive online at

acrosstobear.wordpress.com

Email: brownpuzzles@gmail.com

6:30 P.m.

israeli film festival: “Precious Life”,

Avon Cinema

8:00 P.m.

east Campus Speed Dating,

barbour Hall

6:00 P.m.

CSA Chinese New Year banquet,

Andrews Dining Hall

7:30 P.m.

Dancing with the Profs,

Alumnae Hall

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH

DINNER

Roast Turkey with Stuffing, Mashed Sweet and white Potatoes, Vegan

Pumpkin Tofu Cheesecake

Lemon broiled Chicken, Cauliflower Au Gratin, Rosemary Potatoes,

Vegan Pumpkin Tofu Cheesecake

National Pizza Day, Cavatappi and whole wheat Penne, Oatmeal

butterscotch Cookies

beef Stew, Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Grilled Cajun Chicken,

Oatmeal butterscotch Cookies

TODAY FEBRUARY 10 TOmORROW FEBRUARY 11

AC R O S S TO b e A R

S U D O k U

M e N U

C A L e N DA R

Brown Alumni Association and a trustee of the Corporation at the time of his death in December, will be held Saturday at 12:15 p.m. in Sayles Hall.

In addition to the budget, Carey said discussion will likely also touch on housing and future capital proj-ects, as well as ongoing projects such as the Katherine Moran Coleman

Aquatics Center and Jonathan Nel-son ’77 Fitness Center and the Medi-cal Education Building.

Carey said the University’s invest-ment in HEI Hotels and Resorts will also be on the agenda for the Cor-poration’s Investment Committee following the December recom-mendation by the Advisory Com-mittee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policy not to reinvest

in the company.Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76,

who leads the Corporation, said that for the past few years the body has been “operating under the shadow of convulsions of the financial markets” in its discussions of fundraising and capital projects.

“Meeting at this time is an op-portunity to both step back and to look forward,” he said.

At its February meeting last year, the Corporation approved a 4.5 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and fees along with a 6.5 per-cent increase in the undergraduate financial aid budget.

Last year’s budget set in motion an internal restructuring that led to about 60 layoffs and 140 early retire-ments by the start of this academic year.

Unlike the May and October meetings, the Corporation’s Febru-ary meeting does not usually include emeriti members. The 54 trustees and fellows expected to attend the meeting include a replacement for Fernandez, whose name will be an-nounced after the meeting.

Corporation to review building projectscontinued from page 1

By aShley aydinSenior Staff Writer

In suite 410 of J. Walter Wilson, amid colorful artwork, classic furniture and family photographs of Brown community members, sits Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson, the University chaplain.

Appointed chaplain in 1990, Cooper Nelson has been a part of the Brown community for the past 21 years. She serves not only as direc-tor of the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life but also as a personal resource for the students, faculty and staff whose images adorn her walls.

revered reverend“When I took this job, I was the

first woman to take a job like this at an Ivy,” Cooper Nelson said.

Though she is now the author-ity on the University’s religious life, Cooper Nelson started her career in the secular world. Her path to chaplain began when she left her job as a history teacher.

“My brain was tired from teach-ing kids, and I needed a break,” she said. After leaving her teaching posi-tion, Cooper Nelson became inter-ested in studying law and headed to graduate school on an experimental grant, she said.

When the time came to reapply for the grant, she started to consider a new path. “What about ordina-tion?” Cooper Nelson asked herself.

Cooper Nelson started to look into combined programs at Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Law School but did not like the way the law school worked “because of its sort of ‘hazing’ process,” she said, “where students would have to stand up and read cases.”

Cooper Nelson enrolled at the Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., while her husband worked at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. “We moved our family home,

which was just the two of us, to New Hampshire. I had to make weekly commutes. There was divinity place-ment in Hanover, which ultimately turned into a job,” she said.

There is not a typical process for becoming a chaplain of a university. “People come to this position out of academic classrooms at universities, out of (non-governmental organiza-tions), out of congregational work — which is the least likely — and other different areas,” she said.

nuts and bolts and faithBeing chaplain of the University

is no easy role. The job is both an ad-ministrative and a spiritual vocation. Cooper Nelson typically meets with other administrators, fulfills pastoral duties by running religious services, reads and writes articles and speaks publicly at University events and on the road, she said. She also works with other religious organizations to aid in fundraising efforts.

“There’s a big Brown family, and anyone who is in need of care gets our help,” Cooper Nelson said, adding that the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life has a wide reach. “Our e-mail address group is close to 18,000 people,” she said.

Cooper Nelson said there is a broad interest in religion on campus. “It’s not hard to get people to talk about the topic of religion, but that’s kind of true at Brown for anything,” she said.

“I would say 40 to 60 percent of Brown students are involved in re-ligion, whether through fellowship groups, attending services or writing about religion for some journal,” she added.

As chaplain, Cooper Nelson said she tries to supports students in their choices instead of dictating specific solutions to them.

“We’re just going to hold the mirror up for you and make sure you’ve made a decision that reflects the values you have,” she said. “That’s our job.”

divine ProvidenceA few years after she arrived as

chaplain, Cooper Nelson said she talked to senior officers and deans and created student focus groups to see what could be done to increase religious diversity on campus. Coo-per Nelson also created additional associate positions in her office so Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim traditions would all be represented on campus. She also established new positions in public service.

“It was a more successful design for signaling to people that the di-versity of religion was a priority at Brown and would be supported,” she said. “The range of practice in each of the major strands of tradition here is very broad.”

Cooper Nelson also focuses on increasing religious literacy on cam-pus. The Office of Chaplains and Religious Life provides invitations to students to collaborate with fac-ulty, undertake research projects and participate in programs to increase knowledge about different traditions, she said. This semester, she is facili-tating a religious literacy seminar for students seeking extracurricular learning.

“We’re endlessly teaching when we are caring and caring when we are teaching. We’re never off the hook in each direction. We’re trying to help students voice what they think and reach a place of understanding,” Cooper Nelson said.

For Cooper Nelson, the notion of religion is still complex. “I think the word ‘religion’ is a stumbling block. People associate it with institutional failure,” she said.

Religious institutions across the world are undergoing processes of deep reform and restructuring.

“Your grandchildren will see radi-cally different models, whether due to finance, deep moral outrage about the conduct of some communities and the people in some communi-ties, or something else,” she said.

Chaplain looks back on 21 years

Feature

Campus news 3the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

By MiriaM furStStaff Writer

Though in a newly-released na-tional survey college freshmen rated their emotional health at a record low, Psychological Services has not seen a significant change in visits from first-year students, Director of Psych Services Belinda Johnson said.

At the start of this academic year, Psych Services hired a new psychotherapist. The decision was partially a response to a 2009 New England Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation re-port, which criticized the Uni-versity’s psychological support resources compared to those of its peers, The Herald reported in September.

The addition to the staff “has certainly improved our ability to serve students because a new position makes you more avail-able,” Johnson said. “What will be most interesting to see in the end of the year is if we’re seeing more students than we had in previ-ous years. It’s still too early to tell though,” she said.

Johnson added that the main

reason for hiring another psy-chotherapist was to increase the number of free sessions available to students from five to seven per year.

The national Higher Education Research Institute survey, based on responses from 201,818 first-year students at 279 different colleges, showed that fewer students per-ceived their emotional health “was in the ‘highest 10 percent’ or ‘above average’ when compared to their peers,” according to the research brief. The survey has been distrib-uted to college freshmen for the last 45 years, said Linda DeAngelo, assistant director for research for the Cooperative Institutional Re-search Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, which administered the survey.

In the most recent survey, the percentage of students reporting their emotional health as above average dropped from 55.3 percent in 2009 to 51.9 percent in 2010, according to the research brief. Freshmen are surveyed when they first enter college, DeAngelo said, so results reflect how students felt when first entering school.

“We see in our study that stu-

dents expect to be satisfied with college,” DeAngelo said. But she said many students feel pres-sure and anxiety about “making the most of their college experi-ences.” Specifically, the survey showed two-thirds of freshmen had financial concerns that had influenced their choice of school.

DeAngelo said in recent years universities have “really started to increase the wellness services they offer to students.”

Over the past five years, Psych Services has seen roughly 17 per-cent of the student body each year, Johnson said. In comparison, half that many students used the Uni-versity’s psychological resources in 1985.

The greater availability of re-sources is not the only factor that has driven the increase, Johnson said. “Since 1985, culturally — not just at Brown — there has been more attention given to mental health,” she said.

Johnson said Psych Services tries to make first-years aware of available resources by participating in orientation activities and pro-viding information to residential peer leaders.

Over the past five years, John-son said she has not seen any ma-jor changes in the concerns stu-dents bring with them when they visit Psych Services. She said that though more students feel pres-sure and anxiety regarding jobs because of the economic recession, the number is not large.

Additionally, when students first go to Psych Services, they are asked whether they have seen a counselor before coming to Brown. Johnson said they have been col-lecting this information for the past six years and the percentage has not changed.

Johnson said the national sur-vey involves self-reports from freshmen about their emotional health compared to how they per-ceive their peers’ emotional well-being. The results are a measure of perceived emotional health, rather than an evaluation of students’ ac-tual mental states.

Brown regularly tops the Princ-eton Review’s annual list of col-leges with the “Happiest Students.” But having the happiest students is not the same as having the stu-dent body with the highest level of emotional well-being.

“One common theme, that I would guess is somewhat specific to Brown, is that students tend to assume that everyone around them has it together, and that they are the only one experiencing any sort of distress,” said Remy Fernandez-O’Brien ’12, a residential coun-selor in Littlefield House. “This of course is not true, but it does seem to make people less likely to seek help when they could benefit from it.”

“People don’t necessarily want to specifically label what’s going on with them, but they are often motivated to make things bet-ter for themselves,” Fernandez-O’Brien added. “Because of this, in many cases I’ll recommend a spe-cific person that I know, in Psych Services or another department, whom I know to be particularly helpful.”

“I do believe that Brown stu-dents are happier on average than students at other universi-ties,” Johnson said. “So you get this phenomenon that students who are feeling bad feel cheated or are reluctant to let other students know they are feeling bad because they feel out of the ordinary.”

Psych Services reports no increase in visits from freshmen

By Claire GianOttiContributing Writer

This semester the Swearer Cen-ter for Public Service will pay its program coordinators by the hour, rather than with a stipend, in order to bring its compensation polices in line with the Fair Labor Stan-dards Act.

Coordinators are paid not only because of their large time com-mitment, but also in the hope that the compensation will make com-munity service “more financially accessible,” said Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center and associate dean of the College for community and global engagement.

Affected students did not ex-press strong opinions about the change. “I do the work that I need to do, and I happen to get paid,” said Brian Lin ’12, a coordinator for the Brown Language Arts Program, which works with elementary-age students in Providence schools.

Lin said he was unsure how the change would affect him.

Christine Joyce ’12.5, a coordi-

nator for the Swearer Classroom Program, said the only real change to her routine was that she would have to log her time hourly rather than weekly.

Every week, coordinators will now have to fill out a form to log their hours in order to receive payment. Last year, Lin said, “the checks just came.”

The Swearer Center does not expect “a major change” in funding for the center, or in the amount of compensation students will receive, Nozaki said. “At this point it is a pretty straightforward thing,” he added.

The decision is not a result of the Swearer budget cuts announced last spring, said Elizabeth Warner, director of compensation and or-ganizational services. Instead, the change is intended to bring the University into compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, she said.

A committee convened by the Department of Human Resources, the Office of Financial Aid and the Controller’s Office met at the be-ginning of the semester to “clarify

student employment policies and procedures,” Warner said. The same review led the computer sci-ence department to begin paying its teaching assistants by the hour last semester.

This committee revised the stu-dent employment handbook and standardized a time-tracking sheet that can be used by all departments. This effort will continue, Warner said, adding that the committee will work with the Dean of the College to define a new category of paid “student opportunities,” which will not be subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Offering “student opportunities” in addition to stu-dent employment will hopefully provide more avenues for students to be involved in campus life, War-ner said.

The review “has nothing to do with money,” Warner said, and is rather in response to a need for more communication between departments regarding employ-ment on campus. She added that the review is not likely to spur any further changes to the way money is allotted to student-run programs.

Swearer Center brings student pay in line with labor law

Stephanie London / HeraldThe Swearer Center will pay students by the hour instead of on a stipend basis.

Finding a qualified female pro-fessor for the physics department is “as rare as a fang in an owl’s mouth,” said Michael Kosterlitz, professor of physics and chair of the Committee for Faculty Equity and Diversity.

Vohra also said the high number of tenured professors — 72 percent — slows down faculty turnover, making it difficult to quickly alter its composition. Consequently, he attributed the growth in diversity to increased hiring in the past 10 years, a component of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.

But both Vohra and Wilson em-phasized change beyond the overall numbers, citing shifts in ethnic and gender composition in individual departments.

“In the Department of Econom-ics, at one point we had no women at any level,” Wilson said. “Now there are two senior women in the De-partment of Economics, and there are extensive recruitments going on that we hope will result in the appointment of women and maybe even racial or ethnic minorities.”

Vohra said he believes the intro-duction of female professors into historically male departments such

as economics, physics and applied mathematics will pave the way for future female hires.

Professor of Economics Glenn Loury, who is African-American, said that although he doesn’t like to “play a numbers game” with issues of diversity, he does think increased faculty diversity would benefit stu-dents. At the same time, he said it

is important to consider the pool of applicants.

“Maybe I wish there were more black faculty around not at just this university, but at other universities of this caliber,” Loury said. “But I know how hard it is to find out-standing African-American can-didates.”

Wilson added that faculty di-versity is considered heavily in the hiring process. When looking for new faculty members, departments must submit recruitment plans to the Dean of the Faculty’s office and to Wilson. Both review the plans and the subsequent shortlists of ap-plicants to ensure that departments consider diversity. An affirmative action representative also sits on every recruitment panel.

Professor of Mathematics Hee

Oh, who is originally from Korea, said her department does consider “the issue of women” when looking for new hires. But Oh, who previ-ously worked at the California Insti-tute of Technology, also said a lack of diversity exists at many schools.

About 18 percent of Harvard fac-ulty members identify as minorities, while 27 percent are female, accord-ing to a report published this year. Yale, meanwhile, reports a faculty composed of about 20 percent mi-norities and 33.5 percent females. Penn, Stanford University and Cor-nell all published reports in 2009, finding percentages of minorities in the teens and percentages of females in the twenties. An article in Princ-eton’s alumni magazine reported a similar race and gender distribution.

Both Vohra and Wilson ex-

pressed hope for future increases in faculty diversity, though Wilson said she believes there will always be a “lag” between student and fac-ulty diversity. According to statistics published this fall, 52.2 percent of undergraduate students are female and 45.8 percent identify as white. The graduate school and Alpert Medical School reported similar gender and race distributions.

Wilson also said diversity in the faculty encourages students to fol-low their passions. “Having a scholar of color or a woman scholar in these classes really demonstrates to stu-dents the universality of knowledge and the potential of every individual to aspire to those fields to which they are best suited,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a field that is only for this person or that person.”

Campus news4 the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

Gili kliger / Herald

Hiring of minority, female faculty progressing slowlycontinued from page 1

City & State 5the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

By CaSey BlehOStaff Writer

Students pride themselves on get-ting involved off College Hill, and during the midterm campaign season last year, they did just that, lending support to state candi-dates and getting a real-world in-troduction to the political process.

“People are intrigued and will listen to you because you’re young and bright-eyed. Catch them off-guard, and they’ll listen,” said Libby Kimzey, campaign man-ager for state Rep. Teresa Tanzi, D-Narragansett, Wakefield and Peace Dale. Kimzey, who took a leave from the University and

moved in with Tanzi to assist her campaign, did not provide a graduation year.

Both the Brown Republicans and the Brown Democrats have been active volunteers for their respective candidates, said Ter-rence George ’13, president of the Brown Republicans. “Politicians know we are a somewhat reliable source for volunteers,” he said, so “we are treated with respect.”

Because students help can-didates during their campaigns, they know politicians will consid-er their views when formulating policy, said Katerina Wright ’11, president of the Brown Demo-crats. Rhode Island’s small size

means state government is highly accessible to students, she said.

Tanzi said her campaign shows the potential for student impact. Tanzi, a resumed undergraduate student from Wakefield, took a leave from the University in 2008 to start a family and later success-fully ran for the state House of Representatives.

“Without a doubt, students were the backbone of this cam-paign,” she said, adding that while she had plenty of offers from paid

consultants seeking to provide campaign advice, her campaign needed volunteers.

Anna Quinn ’13 helped Tanzi’s campaign garner absentee votes from Brown students. Quinn said her campaign experience showed her that “anyone can be involved.” Political participation gave her “a sense of ownership in my repre-sentative on a state level,” she said.

Aaron Regunberg ’12 worked as an East Side field organizer for Providence Mayor Angel Tav-

eras during his campaign. “We knocked on every door on the East Side three to four times,” Re-gunberg said. After the election, Regunberg was named a member of Taveras’s transition team for issues related to education.

“With the right legislature,” students can “absolutely” have clout when it comes to the politi-cal process, Tanzi said. “If they’re willing to put in the time and the energy and are willing to testify, the sky is the limit.”

Undergrads take action in state political campaigns

Read Post- magazine Thursdays in the Herald

ample, she said, they understand physics but struggle with the math behind it, such as unit conversions, fractions and ratios. But “they’ll pick it up once they are taught,” she added.

Williams called her experience with students “mentoring, with science on the side.” The program is a science enrichment program in which Brown students mentor and tutor roughly 40 to 50 underprivi-leged students from several high

schools in Providence. Each men-tor is assigned to five high school students, teaching basic science skills and helping with schoolwork or college preparation.

The group also plans “excit-ing lessons,” such as chemistry of food or a Halloween lesson on sugar, Williams said. She added that the program tries to expose high school students to college life and promote the study of science at college. They hope to present students’ science projects at the Science Center this semester to

“make more people at Brown know more about it and (get) the word out about what we do,” Williams said. “It is a fulfilling and wonder-ful experience to teach students who incredibly deserve” the op-portunity, she added.

Mark Sabbagh ’12, who partici-pates in the program, called the experience “incredibly rewarding” for the student mentors. “We fall between teacher and friend,” he said. It is “less of teaching,” he said, but really about “being with them.”

City & State6 the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

Students bring science concepts to lifecontinued from page 12

Let your voice be heard at the State House today,” said Rep. John Edwards, D-Tiverton and Ports-mouth.

Students were also in atten-dance, including members of the Brown Democrats and queer al-liances.

Jean McCabe ’14 said she was confident about the future of gay rights in Rhode Island. “I think that this is the year we’re probably going to get marriage equality,” McCabe told The Herald. ”It’s only a matter of time.”

“It’s a matter of fairness and jus-tice,” said Rachel Cocroft, a local supporter of equal marriage rights. “I hope it brings Rhode Island into

the 21st century.”Twenty to 30 anti-gay marriage

advocates were peppered through the crowd. One such advocate, Jackie Archambealt, told The Herald she was there to “support traditional marriage.”

“I’m a born-again Christian, and the definition of marriage should be the way that God in-tended it to be: between a man and a woman,” she said.

Other counter-protesters in-cluded remaining members of the anti-gay marriage rally and for-mer Providence mayoral candidate Chris Young. “Same-sex marriage violates the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States — the establishment clause,” Young told The Herald. “The gov-

ernment may not redefine the reli-gious meaning of our belief.”

Kyle Marnane, a volunteer for Marriage Equality Rhode Island and a student at Johnson and Wales University, has been work-ing for the organization since Oc-tober. “Hopefully this shows the General Assembly that marriage matters,” Marnane said, “and that marriage equality needs to hap-pen now.”

The legalization of gay marriage is not the only bill dealing with the issue that has been introduced to the General Assembly. Another bill has been put up for consideration that would put legalization on the ballot in November.

“We do not want (a referen-dum) to happen,” Marnane said.

Gay marriage advocates find hope

nesses by driving up health care costs.

“I’ve spoken with small busi-ness owners who say they can’t hire new employees because of this,” Robitaille said.

But Ted Almon, president and CEO of Claflin, a Warwick-based medical device company, said ex-changes will benefit small busi-nesses.

“The exchange opportunity provided in the federal legislation is perhaps the most significant op-portunity that we’ve had to really bend the cost curve in the future of health care,” Almon said.

He said the exchanges will make providing insurance afford-able for businesses, while giving workers additional flexibility.

“Small business, ultimately, through the use of this tool, will be able to make a defined contri-bution on behalf of their employ-ees — but their employees would

then be able to use the exchange to select appropriate coverage within that budget,” he said.

Almon said he thinks the ex-change itself should be simple and user-friendly. He said the General Assembly should focus on the ex-change’s structure and authority, without getting into operational details.

Also last month, freshman state Rep. Daniel Gordon, R-Little Compton, Portsmouth and Tiverton, introduced a bill that would prevent the government from requiring Rhode Islanders to purchase insurance and from levying a fine if they refuse to do so, thereby nullifying a key com-ponent of the reform law known as the individual mandate. Un-der the federal Supremacy Clause, states cannot nullify federal law.

Challenges to health care re-form’s individual mandate are pending in federal court and will likely go before the Supreme Court.

State leaders look to reform heathcare

continued from page 12

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City & State 7the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

By Kat thOrntOnSenior Staff Writer

Gay marriage supporters and op-ponents alike gathered at the State House yesterday for the House Judiciary Committee hearing on two bills regarding same-sex mar-riage in Rhode Island.

The first bill would legalize same-sex marriage, while the second would put to vote next year a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Three hun-dred people signed up to give testimony at the hearing.

Beforehand, the line to enter the building reached onto the sidewalk outside the north en-trance of the State House, and space for hearing attendees had to be expanded to the second and third floors.

The hearing began with debate between state legislators, led by state Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Provi-dence. Ajello, whose district in-cludes College Hill, was recently named chair of the House Judi-ciary Committee.

State Rep. Jon Brien, D-Woon-socket, called for the issue to be put to a public vote because it is “larger than this body.” He added, “No one group has a fundamental right” to define marriage for the state.

Other representatives coun-tered Brien with the reasoning that marriage equality is a civil rights issue that the government has the power to legislate in order to protect the rights of minority groups such as gays.

“The system has been set up to protect the rights of minorities,” said state Rep. Michael Marcello, D-Cranston. “It is only through the system that we protect every-one’s rights.”

Brien responded that same-sex marriage should not be con-sidered an issue of civil rights because sexual orientation is a matter of choice, while race is not.

State Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, compared same-sex marriage to female suffrage. She said that in the past, a woman’s right to vote would not have passed in a public vote because it was an “emotional issue.”

Ajello later stopped the discus-sion to open the floor for citizen testimony.

After each testimony, repre-sentatives asked the speakers questions.

A lawyer who supports gay marriage said she has seen same-sex couples face challenges in at-taining the same legal protection they would receive from marriage. Because same-sex couples can’t marry, it is more difficult for them to take a leave of absence from work if a partner is ill or to adopt children.

Noah Bareto, an eighth grade student at Cole Middle School in East Greenwich, spoke in favor of the bill. Bareto said he has not seen a difference between children raised by gay parents and children raised by straight parents. “It’s not going to affect our lives if some-one else is happy,” he said.

Many people consider “gay” a synonym for “bad,” he said, but he does not agree with that sentiment. “In the Bible they ate children. We don’t eat children,” he added.

Other gay marriage advocates cited potential economic gains from legalization. According to a representative from the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, legaliz-ing gay marriage could bring the state $1.2 million in the next three years.

Sally Lapides, co-founder of Residential Properties Ltd. in Providence said legalizing gay marriage would encourage more people to live in Rhode Island.

Same-sex marriage opponents called for a public vote and urged the committee to vote against the bill because it constitutes a redefi-

nition of marriage.The bill would “hurt our chil-

dren’s futures,” said lawyer Joe Cavanagh. He said marriage “between a man and a woman” has been the traditional definition “since the beginning of the world.”

“Same-sex marriage is an oxy-moron,” he said.

Other opponents claimed

legalizing gay marriage would hurt future generations because children would grow up without fathers.

Listeners outside the hear-ing differed on their views of the proceedings. Lauren Bonetti, a same-sex marriage supporter, said she is optimistic the bill will pass this year.

Linda Green, who opposes legalization, said she wishes this were not a legal issue. She said she did not want to appear hateful toward the gay community, but claimed the bill’s passage would negatively redefine families.

“Where does it end?” she asked. “Where do we draw the line?”

Citizens flood State House for gay marriage hearing

By tiMOthy M. PhelPS and KiM MurPhy

LoS angeLeS timeS

CAIRO — Egypt’s government and protesters edged closer to violent confrontation Wednesday as dem-onstrators escalated their tactics and the vice president warned of a coup if the unrest continued, say-ing protests must end or “the dark bats of the night” would emerge to terrorize the nation.

Labor unrest continued to plague the nation for a second day, threatening to merge the political goals of the opposition with the more focused economic issues that have long plagued Egypt. And vio-lence spread to a normally peaceful desert oasis 500 miles southwest of Cairo, where police killed four people.

Protesters in the central square, re-energized by massive crowds Tuesday after turnout began to flag on Monday, promised the biggest demonstrations yet on Friday, this time nationwide as well as in multiple locations in Cairo. On Wednesday, they defied the Egyp-tian army by occupying the street in front of parliament, creating a second front in downtown Cairo.

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, in comments to Egyp-tian newspaper editors published Wednesday, warned sharply that demonstrations could not contin-ue. Suleiman, who until now has presented himself as a soft-spoken voice of reason in discussions with opposition leaders, sounded rattled as he warned of tougher measures.

The protests are “very danger-ous for society, and we can’t put up with this at all,” he said. “We don’t want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools.”

He said he foresaw “the dark bats of the night emerging to ter-rorize the people” if the situation is not resolved. If protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s leader-ship continued, he said, the like-lihood is that “a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities.”

A coup could come from within the regime, the army, the police or intelligence services — which he used to lead — or the opposition, Suleiman warned.

Middle-class Cairenes in par-ticular were terrified by the with-drawal of police from the city 11 days ago, resulting in the mass re-lease of prisoners and reports of people from poor neighborhoods marauding at night in wealthier areas. Many have spent nights outside guarding their homes and businesses with metal bars and sometimes guns.

While fewer people have been out patrolling the last two nights, Suleiman’s comments about “bats” appeared calculated to stir up those fears.

The army has taken over secu-rity from the police, but has fo-cused on the protests, not police work. It has been highly praised by the opposition since it moved into Cairo and other urban areas, but Wednesday that relationship seemed to change as the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposi-tion group, accused the army of arresting and torturing protesters headed to Tahrir Square.

“We appreciate the Egyptian army’s role in protecting protest-ers,” said Muhammad Mursi, who has met with Suleiman to discuss the crisis, at a news conference. “But in some places, protesters are being taken to military camps and they are being tortured like those from the (police intelligence) tor-tured people in the past.”

He said 70 to 100 people had been tortured “very badly” by the army.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit also seemed to signal a crackdown could be coming, and added that he was “amazed” to hear of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s call for Egypt to immediately scrap its harsh “emergency law” aimed at maintaining civil order.

“How can you ask me to sort of disband that emergency law while I’m in difficulty? ... Allow me to have control to stabilize the nation, to stabilize the state, and then we would look into the issue,” Aboul Gheit said.

In Washington, State Depart-ment spokesman P.J. Crowley sug-gested Aboul Gheit should not be taken aback by U.S. calls for demo-cratic reform.

“With all due respect to the for-eign minister, he should not be amazed — if that’s the word that he used — at our call for rescind-ing the emergency law,” Crowley said at a news briefing. “We have been calling for that for years, if not decades.”

On Wednesday, about 500 pro-testers blocked the street in front of parliament, some of them hav-ing camped there overnight after Tuesday’s massive gathering in Tahrir Square, four blocks away, spilled over. The government has promised not to forcibly remove demonstrators from the central plaza, but the occupation of new territory increased pressure on the army to act.

The army blocked off Kasr El Ainey Street, the major road into downtown from the south, because it runs by parliament, creating massive traffic jams even beyond

the normal tie-ups.“It’s not OK what you are doing

here,” Gen. Hassan Ruwaini of the military police told protesters. “If you want to protest, go to Tahrir.”

The army has pledged not to at-tack peaceful protesters — at least in Tahrir Square — and it is a rare time in modern Egyptian history when people feel free to disregard military orders.

“We are not leaving, he is leav-ing,” chanted 150 young men be-hind their barricade. It was not clear if they were referring to Mubarak, the usual focus of that slogan, or the general.

The frustrated officer pulled back from the confrontation, at least for a time.

The parliament has been a ma-jor focus of opposition’s ire because of rigged elections and one-party rule. Members of parliament were told to stay home Wednesday, and the building was closed off.

A correspondent for Al-Jazeera television reported Wednesday night that the army had entered the parliament building for the first time in modern history to protect it.

Tahrir Square was surprisingly

full of demonstrators Wednesday, which was not scheduled as a ma-jor day of protest, a sign of con-tinuing vitality within the move-ment to remove Mubarak from power. In another escalation, the opposition called for protests in multiple locations in Cairo on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer.

The protesters were defiant after Suleiman’s warning about a possible coup if protesters don’t back down, and vowed instead to expand their protests.

“What Suleiman said was some-thing aggressive, and that means already they have a decision about what to do against us, and they will do it in these next two days,” said Mohammed Taman, a spokesman for a coalition of five main youth groups attempting to coordinate the protests.

Taman emphasized that none of those purportedly representing protesters in talks with the gov-ernment were legitimate. “This is very bad, several times on TV they said these guys represent us. This is false. There is no one representing us,” he said. “If there is someone from the government who wants to negotiate with us, they should come here.”

He added that “we have one re-quest, and we insist on it: Mubarak must leave.”

While not necessarily throwing in their lot with the opposition, workers seemed to take advantage of the chaos to issue their own de-mands.

In downtown Cairo, Ministry of Health employees joined the protesters outside the parliament.

A few blocks away, journalists were on strike for better pay at the magazine Rose El Yussef and condemned their editors for lavish lifestyles and supporting Mubarak.

Hundreds of workers and em-ployees at the Egypt Telecom Co. protested outside company head-quarters downtown, demanding better salaries and working con-ditions. There are ongoing strikes and protests by workers at the Egypt Railway Co., the Omar Ef-fendi public retail stores and the Petrotrade petroleum company. Several other protests by pub-lic workers are taking place in the governorates of Giza, Suez, Helwan, Kafr El Dawar and Kafr El Zayat.

While the majority of labor-ers are calling for better contracts, working conditions and pay raises, they have also chanted slogans that salute the protests in Tahrir Square.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik is carrying out his duties from the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s headquarters near Cairo Airport after demonstrators pre-vented him from entering the Cabinet building.

In New Valley, a western prov-ince, security forces reported that the first sizable anti-Mubarak gathering in the region resulted in clashes between protesters and police Tuesday and Wednesday. Four people were killed and several were wounded by gunshots.

Protesters in the city of Port Said set the City Hall building on fire after saying the city’s governor ignored their complaints for sub-sidized housing facilities.

world & nation8 the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

Suleiman warns of coup as tensions rise in Egypt

Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles TimesA group of protesters established themselves in front of the egyptian Parliament building wednesday in Cairo, egypt.

world & nation 9the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

By renee SChOOfmCCLatChy neWSpaperS

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House of Representatives energy committee on Wednesday aired their proposal to block the Environmental Protection Agency from reducing greenhouse gases and to reverse the agency’s scientific finding that climate change is dangerous.

While the plan might be blocked in the Senate or vetoed by Presi-dent Barack Obama, the comments during Wednesday’s hearing were a fresh indication of the depth of opposition in Congress to action on reducing U.S. carbon pollution. Supporters of the measure to revise the Clean Air Act to take away the EPA’s authority to regulate this type of pollution said that curbing emis-sions would be too costly.

The EPA’s planned regulations “would boost the cost of energy, not just for homeowners and car owners, but for businesses both large and small,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., the author of the legislation. “EPA may be starting by regulating only the largest power plants and factories, but we will all feel the impact of higher prices and fewer jobs.”

The EPA’s main plan so far is to write regulations that would set standards for heat-trapping gases emitted by new or upgraded power plants and refineries. The standards would be met mainly through ef-ficiency improvements.

Congressional opponents of EPA action haven’t offered an alternative plan to cut emissions.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jack-son testified that the agency would estimate the costs after it wrote the regulations. The Clean Air Act re-quires the agency to show that its plans are cost-effective and tech-nologically feasible.

Jackson said Congress would be wrong to overturn the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding” that green-

house gases are a threat to American health and welfare.

“Politicians overruling scien-tists on a scientific question — that would become part of this commit-tee’s legacy,” she said.

She cited the National Academy of Sciences, the government’s chief science advisory body, which has reported that “there is a strong, credible body of evidence, based on multiple lines of research, docu-menting that the climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities.”

Scientific organizations have said in recent years that global tempera-tures are rising as a result of the ac-cumulation of heat-trapping gases, mostly from fossil fuel use, and that the risks to the planet will increase if these emissions aren’t cut.

Upton has said that global tem-peratures may be rising but he’s not convinced that human actions are the cause.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gases under the law if it found they endangered human health and welfare.

Then-EPA Administrator Ste-phen Johnson recommended in a letter to President George W. Bush in 2008 that the administration im-pose curbs similar to the ones the agency now plans.

“The latest science of climate change requires the agency to propose a positive endangerment finding,” Johnson wrote. Commit-tee Democrats released his letter Tuesday.

The Bush administration in the end rejected greenhouse gas regu-lations and didn’t allow the EPA to make its endangerment finding public.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., pre-dicted that Obama would veto the bill if it cleared Congress and that he and other opponents of the leg-islation would have enough votes to sustain the veto.

The American Lung Association on Wednesday released a letter to Obama and Congress from more than 1,800 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals urging them to reject Upton’s bill.

Committee Republicans pressed Jackson for more information about the costs of greenhouse gas curbs.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chal-lenged her to refute his assertion

that millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars per year would be lost. “This regulation is going to skyrocket electricity costs,” said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill.

Barton and other Republicans cut off Jackson repeatedly, speak-ing over her attempts to reply. She told the panel the benefits of Clean Air Act regulations historically out-weighed the costs by large amounts.

At a briefing before the hearing, Dick Munson of Recycled Energy Development said greater efficiency could cut emissions profitably. Re-cycled Energy Development installs equipment to capture waste heat in order to make power without addi-tional fuel. Munson said the EPA’s rule would “drive the installation of proven technologies that will en-hance American competitiveness.”

House panel plans to overturn EPA’s finding on climate change

BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden, Valerie Hsiung and Dan Ricker

Dot Comic | eshan Mitra and brendan Hainline

CO M i C S

editorial & Letter10 the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

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After fire, new sailing facility badly neededTo the Editor:

Thank you for the terrific article on the fire at the home of Brown sailing. Now that the disaster has at least been reported in The Herald, we can begin ef-forts to raise awareness and commitment across the University to build a Brown-owned waterfront sailing facility, comparable to other schools’. A place where

all students, not just the sailing team, can go anytime. Now we can editorialize on the need and value for something Brown should have replaced when the first Brown-owned sailing facility, acquired in 1937 as a gift from the class of 1908, was destroyed.

James mackey IV ’87

e D i TO R i A L CO M i C b y a l e x y u lye D i TO R i A L

As seniors settle into their last semester, many are double-checking their requirements to make sure that, come May, they will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in hand. While some expect to receive degrees from multiple departments, a small contingent will earn both a bach-elor’s and a master’s degree through the University’s concurrent degree program. Not widely publicized, this track allows students to complete both degrees in four years.

As the system currently operates, candidates may apply during their junior year for the joint degree at the discretion of their respective de-partment and the Graduate Council and must demonstrate academic excellence in a minimum of 34 courses over eight or nine semesters. Offering hard-working students the benefit of an advanced degree is com-mendable, yet the concurrent degree program was instituted in the 1960s before the adoption of the New Curriculum, and in some ways appears to stand in contrast with Brown’s current philosophy of liberal learning.

The most stringent stipulation is that candidates must have completed 10 courses outside their area of study by the time they wish to apply. “Area of study” is defined broadly, and in fact often is distinguished at the level of sciences and humanities. This means that a student seeking a bachelor’s and a master’s in English, for example, may have to take at least 10 courses in life or physical sciences by the end of her junior year.

This can impose serious burdens on students who might prefer to spread such classes over their senior year as well, and it might discour-age some others who would be reluctant to take so many extra classes without being certain of admission to the program. On the other hand, if the student took a fifth year at Brown to pursue her master’s, she would be free to structure her undergraduate course of study according to the freedom allowed by the open curriculum, restricted only by the require-ments within her concentration department.

According to Stephen Lassonde, deputy dean of the College, at the time the concurrent degree program was instituted, “the philosophy was to reward students who had already studied broadly.” Yet we see in this an inconsistency with Brown’s current educational philosophy. Given that students gravitate to Brown for its commitment to liberal learning at the undergraduate level, it seems both unfair and illogical to stipulate that those with a focused academic interest must spend valuable credits taking courses in other departments in order to even apply for an ad-vanced degree. We would like to see these contingencies reevaluated and conformed to the mold in which the New Curriculum has been cast.

It is also important that students be aware of their options in pursu-ing degrees at Brown. Lassonde said that he is receiving “inquiries from increasingly younger students,” some before they have even step foot on campus, yet typically fewer than 10 students graduate each year with a concurrent bachelor’s and master’s degree. On the one hand, said Las-sonde, students should avoid “credentialing, rather than broadening and deepening their education,” but they must also receive proper advising far enough in advance, because students who only start to consider applying in their junior year are “having to make real trade-offs.” Students should work closely with their advisors and departments when considering possible degree tracks, and do so early on. When commencement rolls around, we hope to see students become graduates knowing that they made the most of their time here.

editorials are written by The herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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The trouble with the double degree

“Same-sex marriage violates the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States — the establishment clause.”

— Chris Young, former Providence mayoral candidate

opinions 11the Brown Daily heraldthursday, February 10, 2011

During the break, dear reader, I chanced across an astonishing car commercial. You might have seen it. The one where the Dodge Challenger defeats the Redcoats, heralding the dawn of a new nation that gets “two things right: cars and freedom.” “Auto-industry bailout!” I spluttered. “PA-TRIOT Act!” Before I knew it, I was thrown headlong into a gentle transatlantic tiff with my American in-laws.

A while ago, the Yanks had a “revolu-tion,” if that’s the right term for a group of middle-aged white men refusing to share their slavery earnings. A lot of perfectly good tea was ruined. The British took the hint, for the most part, and toddled off to conquer most of the rest of the world with gin and tonics and silly moustaches.

Eventually, we reunited when America popped in for the last five minutes of two World Wars, and things settled down into a tense but durable friendship, like that of two bandmates who remember that they wouldn’t be where they are without one an-other, but still think the other’s solo proj-ects are crap.

In the past few years, however, things have changed ever so slightly. Presi-dent Obama had Bush’s bust of Winston Churchill removed from the Oval Office because it was intimidating his speechwrit-ers. Global energy giants and irresponsibil-ity enthusiasts BP became ‘British’ again when something very, very bad happened, despite the fact that Halliburton was in-

volved and therefore it was almost certainly Dick Cheney’s fault.

We’ve even taken over the superhero arena, installing British actors as Super-man, Batman and Spider-Man, prompt-ing one Hollywood casting director to suggest that American men aren’t man-ly enough for such roles. Probably should have thought twice before you changed the rules of rugby and starting playing in leg-gings, eh?

And now, it seems, we’re coming for your universities. Or at least, a few more

of us are applying to Brown, according to a recent article in The Herald (“Academic freedom a plus for Brits,” Jan. 31). Lock up your teapots: Brits are bursting forth from the gulags and making for the nearest Ur-ban Outfitters in unprecedented numbers.

It’s true that the differences between the British and American education systems are surprisingly marked. As the earlier arti-cle notes, students in Britain start specializ-ing much earlier. Your intrepid correspon-dent ditched geography, for example, at the age of 14, despite the inevitable homonym-ic hilarities that come with the adolescent study of such fascinating topics as coastal

erosion. Groin! Every time.Under the British system one can, if one

is so inclined, blind oneself to enormous chunks of human thought and endeavor at a very early stage. At sixteen, I bid adieu giddily to maths and the sciences to focus on the humanities and social sciences, and rarely have I been as happy since. I am, of course, now innumerate. Around 17, one picks a subject to study at university and applies to universities to study it. Stick with it for another three years and before you know it, you’re a notional expert. You can

get most of the way toward qualifying as a doctor or lawyer in Britain before you can order a beer in the U.S.

Before you reel in horror, there is some-thing to be said for this approach. Those who view the value of university educa-tion purely in terms of training the work-force appreciate the efficiency of being able to churn out engineers, for example, at 21. And even the majority of students who don’t end up directly translating their degree expertise into an occupation ben-efit from the opportunity for immersion in a discipline. This is especially the case at Cambridge and Oxford, where students

are taught primarily in one-on-one or very small group meetings.

There isn’t much I would change about my undergrad experience. I wouldn’t trade the time I spent reading in pubs and on riv-erbanks for all the language labs and cof-fee shops the Ivy League can throw. Of course, due to educational choices made during my adolescence, I’m not capable of adding up how many labs and workshops that would be. By my 21st birthday, I had forgotten more about Nietzsche than Ni-etzsche learned about me in his entire life, and I enjoyed forgetting it all tremendous-ly. There is a reason why British universities are still turning out, for example, the bet-ter PhDs in subjects like European history — that relentless focus produces detailed, sometimes definitive, work.

Nonetheless, the liberal arts curricu-lum as practiced at universities like Brown leaves me feeling jealous. I very much like the idea of following one’s intellectual nos-trils without giving up on all other scents. One’s interests change. Imagine having to listen to the same music from 16 to 22. By graduation, you might have soured a lit-tle on Weezer. It might have been nice to mix up all that European political philoso-phy with the occasional interpretive dance workshop and actually get academic credit for it.

So take your time, follow your nose and enjoy your academic freedom. Or your ac-ademic Dodge Challenger. Just keep Wee-zer off the stereo. It’s still too soon.

Stephen wicken GS is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in history. He can be

reached at stephen_wicken@brown.edu.

(Some Of) The British Are (Sort of) (Still) Coming!

Look around. Wherever you are on cam-pus, you are most likely surrounded by a fairly diverse group of students who are unique in any number of ways, from eth-nicity to sexual orientation to intellectual passions. Brown’s cosmopolitan character is refreshing, and the pattern of growing diversity in American colleges is perhaps the greatest achievement of education in the last century.

But it has its limits. The new frontiers of exclusion in this country — at least in higher education — are no longer princi-pally confined to matters of race or religion — they are socioeconomic. As much as we and elite universities like us pride our-selves on our inclusivity, it is an irrefutable fact that the strongest internal correlation among students is that of economic back-ground. A simple statistic from a recent Princeton study says it all: Of all students in the top 146 universities in America, only three percent come from the lowest income quartile — 77 percent come from the high-est.

This is an unsustainable state of affairs, one that raises a pressing question: How can we oversee the redistribution of intel-lectual capital from the educated elite to the masses? For the beginnings of an answer, we can look to the great equalizer of our

time: the Internet. In 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology began an “OpenCourseWare” initiative to publish educational materials from all of its courses online, for free. Near-ly ten years later, MIT “OpenCourseWare” hosts over 2,000 classes, many of which feature an organized course plan complete with full, in-class lectures by MIT profes-sors, notes, homework, exams and hours of instructional solution videos worked out by graduate students specifically assigned

to “T.A.” the online version of the course. Meanwhile, in a converted walk-in clos-

et just outside of Silicon Valley, Sal Khan — a former hedge fund manager and gradu-ate of both MIT and Harvard — is record-ing a lecture on thermodynamics. He will soon upload it to KhanAcademy.org, where one can find 2,100 other lessons just like it, ranging from statistics to organic chemis-try to the Napoleonic Wars. Like the MIT initiative, Khan’s teaching is entirely free of

charge and accessible to anyone. Ultimately, this broad-based dissemina-

tion of high-quality educational material means that basically anyone in the world with a library card and an Internet connec-tion can receive a truly world-class educa-tion.

These new academic media seem to un-derscore the long-standing inefficacies in contemporary higher education. While Khan’s informal lessons are not in any po-sition to replace the traditional classroom

model, they teem with a refreshing sense of childlike enthusiasm that may be in short supply in a lecture of two hundred that is taught by a tenured professor a few years past his prime.

In the face of the looming higher educa-tion bubble, in which students are seeing a rapidly increasing cost compared with de-creasing returns for a college degree, these legitimate, free online resources are pre-serving the viability of the future of higher

education. In a society where education is not a virtue, but merely a quantifiable com-modity in the professional’s repertoire, they are reclaiming it for the intellectually curi-ous and the passionate.

There is immense potential to be found in this latest iteration of distance learning that MIT, Khan Academy and others have helped to build. As an institution that has often been at the forefront of revolutionary ideas in education, Brown University needs to embrace the egalitarian spirit of free and accessible education for all. It’s time that we make a concerted effort to share knowledge with the world, rather than foment it in se-crecy behind walls that are $55,000 high.

It is in our mission to serve “the com-munity, the nation and the world by dis-covering, communicating and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry.” What better way to do so than to create an “OpenCourseWare” ini-tiative here at Brown?

The logistics of an initiative of this mag-nitude are by no means trivial. The pro-gram will be costly — MIT “OpenCourse-Ware” runs at about $3.5 million per year — and, in the midst of a budgetary and fi-nancial crisis, it may be some time before anything worthwhile is implemented. But establishing an online platform for free and accessible learning should be a top prior-ity for the “the rebel Ivy” as we move ahead into the future.

Oliver Doren ’14 is from Miami, fL.

Rethinking the higher education paradigm

it’s time that we make a concerted effort to share knowledge with the world, rather than foment it

in secrecy behind walls that are $55,000 high.

Global energy giants and irresponsibility enthusiasts bP became ‘british’ again when something very, very bad

happened, despite the fact that Halliburton was involved and therefore it was almost certainly Dick Cheney’s fault.

bY OLiVeR DOReNopinions Columnist

bY STePHeN wiCkeNopinions Columnist

By Ju MyOunG KiMStaff Writer

Each week, students devote hun-dreds of hours to teaching and mentoring Providence’s disadvan-taged youth. But these volunteer tutors are facing a problem that even the most dedicated may be ill-equipped to handle.

National science tests show large disparities in Rhode Island, according to the most recent re-port from the National Assess-ment of Educational Progress. Test scores are much lower among mi-nority students than among white students, among disabled students than among non-disabled students and among impoverished students than among the better-off. Rhode Island tested lowest in the nation in 2009 for Hispanic eighth grad-ers, with 74 percent scoring “below basic,” according to the report.

The low scores show that “the need to transform our schools is urgent,” Commissioner of El-ementary and Secondary Educa-tion Deborah Gist said in a Jan. 26 Providence Journal article.

Though the report provided numerical evidence of the score disparity, attempting to close the gap is not a new goal for many Brown tutoring programs.

“There are so many factors in-volved,” said Karen Haberstroh, assistant professor of engineering and director of STEM Outreach, a

group that sponsors a number of programs bringing together gradu-ate students, high schoolers and their teachers to boost students’ understanding of and passion for science.

In one of these programs, Phys-ical Processes in the Environment, graduate students bring weekly inquiry-based science lessons to students in Providence elemen-tary and high schools. Graduate students work “very intensively” to change students’ perception of science and to encourage them to pursue it at the university level, Haberstroh said.

Last summer, the program sponsored a collaboration be-tween Providence teachers and University professors and graduate students. They worked to develop class curricula making science more appealing and interactive. The teachers “have been fantastic and so supportive” of the program, Haberstroh said.

“The students are very behind the grade level,” said Daniel Prinz ’13, a student mentor for Algebra in Motion, a Brown organization that tutors Hope High School stu-dents in math. “That’s why we go out everyday.”

Katie Williams ’11, a student mentor in Brown Science Prep, said that students struggle the most with basic concepts. For ex-

Daily Heraldthe Brown

City & Statethursday, February 10, 2011

By hannah aBelOWContributing Writer

Project Get Ready Rhode Island, an initiative devoted to promoting plug-in electric vehicles, celebrated its one-year anniversary last week by announcing the pledges of 14 Rhode Island-based companies to install charging stations for electric cars.

Albert Dahlberg, professor of medical science, founded the Rhode Island branch of the Project Get Ready initiative of the Rocky Moun-tain Institute, a Colorado think tank, The Herald reported last February.

In the last year, Project Get

Ready’s volunteers have devoted their efforts toward increasing the number of charging stations around Rhode Island. “Even though the ve-hicles won’t be available in Rhode Island until the end of this year, it’s important to start building up the infrastructure,” Dahlberg said.

The number of charging stations in Rhode Island has been rising since the first was unveiled in West Warwick last August.

Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 attended the event and ex-pressed an interest in “looking at how the electric vehicles could be integrated into the state fleet,” Dahl-

berg said.Ryan McGee GS, who has coor-

dinated significant research under-taken by students for Project Get Ready, emphasized the significance of Chafee’s statement. “The previ-ous administration had been totally silent on electric vehicles,” McGee said. “We had already established relationships with City Hall but this is our first high-visibility relation-ship at the State House.”

Until now, Project Get Ready has depended on student research and corporate leadership rather than federal or state support, Dahlberg said. McGee said an aim of the ini-

tiative is to attract more members of the private sector, and he hoped the announcement would help “main-tain their momentum.”

Since the project’s beginning, students have taken an active role in the research necessary for Project Get Ready to establish the needed infrastructure. This fall, one stu-dent researched the geographical distribution of Toyota Prius owners throughout the state. The project is now using this research “to figure out where early adopters for electric vehicles are likely to live,” McGee said.

According to McGee, some

classes at Brown have also moved toward “active participation” in the project, including courses offered in commerce, organizations and en-trepreneurship and environmental studies. Kurt Teichert, a lecturer in environmental studies and manager of environmental stewardship ini-tiatives, offered a seminar last fall in which students discussed differ-ent vehicle technologies, including plug-in electric cars.

“The intent is to have students provide some of the research for Project Get Ready to better under-stand how this market is going to develop,” Treichert said.

R.I. firms commit to installing car-charging stations

By Bradley SilVerManStaff Writer

Rhode Island policymakers are hammering out the details of how to implement the health care re-form bill Congress passed last March.

State Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, intro-duced a bill Jan. 28 to establish a health care exchange in Rhode Island.

“The exchange will create a health benefit marketplace that is fair, competitive, transparent and understandable to individuals and small businesses,” Paiva Weed said in a statement. “It will also have the important job of getting federal subsidies to the people who need them.”

The health care reform law mandates that each state set up a health insurance exchange by 2014 or allow the federal govern-ment to create one if they refuse to comply. An exchange is a set of standardized health plans, offered by private insurers, from which individuals may purchase cover-age. They are intended to inject competition into the marketplace, lower costs and extend coverage to those currently uninsured. Low-income citizens will receive federal subsidies to purchase in-surance under the reform law.

At a January ceremony in downtown Providence, Gov. Lin-coln Chafee ’75 P’14 signed an executive order establishing the

Rhode Island Health Care Reform Commission. He named Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78, who once worked in the health care field and has long advocated for reform, as its chair.

“I really think the creation of this new entity … is really an ex-citing moment,” Roberts said.

She said the exchange should address three critical issues — “af-fordability, quality and sustain-ability.”

The commission will serve to make recommendations to the governor and offer legislative pro-posals to the General Assembly. It replaces a task force Roberts established earlier to investigate the problems facing Rhode Is-land’s health care system. In that role, she clashed with former Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, a staunch federal reform opponent.

“We have been in the past a national leader in health care and health care reform,” Roberts said. “That has not necessarily been our position over the past few years, but I think it will be a real goal of this group and this administration to put us back in the forefront.”

Deborah Faulkner, a consultant to the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, served on Roberts’ task force and will play a role on the new com-mission as well.

“It will create a shop exchange — that is, a place for small em-ployers to identify options for health insurance and potentially

purchase through it,” Faulkner said.

There are many questions over how the exchange will operate — what authority it will have, which plans will be offered and who will be allowed to participate. Oth-er remaining questions include whether it will be sustainable, how it will interface with the state’s Medicaid program and which state government agency will be responsible for overseeing it, Faulkner said.

“Does (the reform law) go beyond what’s envisioned in the (Affordable Care Act) to serve be-yond small groups, larger groups, municipalities?” she said. “Those are the kinds of questions that many folks have raised. Who are its primary customers?”

John Robitaille, a Republican who narrowly lost the race for governor last year, said the health care law’s requirement that in-dividuals purchase insurance is unconstitutional.

“You can’t require people to purchase a product,” he said.

Had Robitaille won, however, he would have been charged with implementing the law. He said he would like the exchange to pro-vide consumers with information about different insurance options. He added that he hopes it does not become a bureaucracy, preferring instead something like a website.

He also said the law hurts busi-

R.I. tackles health care reform

continued on page 6

Mentors seek to boost passion for the sciences

continued on page 6

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